Over the holidays my family and I had lots of time to connect with my cousin, Eddie who lives in Leamington Spa, England over the web cam. We live in Langley, BC so we truly are worlds away from one another. Despite the distance we have managed to bridge it with the wonder of the Internet and web cam technology. It still amazes me that my children have never actually met Eddie, yet they all know him quite well. Despite the distance, he is able to see how they are growing and changing. He keeps track of their various activities and is able to chat with them about how things are going.
This year on Christmas Eve, Eddie managed to get my Aunt to drop around to his flat to “see the family”. It was so great to see and talk with her. How she marveled at seeing and talking with my children through the computer. As a family we have become quite used to chatting with Eddie on line and in a sense we are now more connected with him than we are with people who live only a short drive away from us.
So with this recent experience in the back of my mind, I was quite interested when I read about the Virtual Family Dining system in this month’s edition of Canadian Business. The concept is quite simple – cameras, microphones and a large flat screen monitor are set up in the kitchen/dining areas of multiple family homes – so that families who are physically far apart from each other can actually dine together virtually. One interesting use that is being explored is to use the product with seniors, who are often alone and isolated. The idea is that the Dining System would automatically survey various family households to see who might be available to sit and eat with Grandma (or Grandpa) just as they are sitting down to dine. The thinking is that this might actually encourage seniors to eat better and more regularly. It might also to help them to stay in their own homes longer by still having them feel connected (face to face) with their loved ones.
While I know it is always preferable to be physically close to loved ones, I know it is not always practical or realistic. Given this, I think the folks at Accenture Technology Labs might be on to something with the Virtual Family Dining System. In many ways, my family and I are already doing the low-end technical version of it using our own web cam and Skype or MSN Messenger.
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